Temple, Kanchi
The Kailasanathar temple (Kanchipuram),
also referred to as the Kailasanatha
Temple, is a Pallava-era historic Hindu temple in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India.
Dedicated to Shiva, it is one of the oldest
surviving monuments in Kanchipuram. It
reflects a Dravidian architecture and was
built about 700 CE by Narasimhavarman II
with additions by Mahendra III. A square-plan temple, it has a mukha-mandapa
(entrance hall), a maha-mandapa
(gathering hall) and a primary garbha-Agriya
(sanctum) topped with a four-storey
vimana. The main sanctum is surrounded
by nine shrines, seven outside and two
inside flanking the entrance of the
sanctum, all with forms of Shiva. The outer
walls of the temple's prakara (courtyard) is
also surrounded by cells.
(Kailasanatha Temple)
Religion
District
Shiva
Location
Location
Kanchipuram
State
Country
Architecture
Creator
(Pallava dynasty)
Completed
c. 700 CE (with later
additions)
The Kailasanathar temple is notable for its
intricately carved galaxy of Hindu art in the
late 7th- and early 8th-century Tamil
tradition. These largely relate to Shaivism,
yet also include a significant number of
themes from Vaishnavism, Shaktism and
Vedic deities. The temple is also notable
for one of the early and best specimens of
Hindu mural art in Tamil Nadu. This is found in the inner walls of the courtyard
cells. The murals are in a style that is also
found in the Ajanta Caves, as well as in the
historic paintings in the 8th century
Vaikunthaperumal temple, also in
Kanchipuram. The temple walls have
many inscriptions in early scripts,
important to the epigraphical study of
regional history and Tamil temple
The structure contains 58 small shrines
which are dedicated to various forms of
Shiva. These are built into niches on the
the inner face of the high compound wall of
the circumambulatory passage. The temple is one of the most prominent
tourist attractions of the city.
Geography
The temple is located towards the west of
Kanchipuram city, and is about 75
kilometres (47 mi) from Chennai. Its
location, demarcated according to the
religious faiths are in one of three
"Kanchis", the Shiva Kanchi; the other two
Kanchis are, Vishnu Kanchi and Jain
Kanchi. It is 75 kilometres (47 mi) from Chennai, the capital city of Tamil
Nada. Kailasanathar is one of several
notable temples in Kanchipuram, the
Kachapeshwarar, Kamakshi Amman,
Kumarakottam Temple, and Varadaraja
History
Outer view of the temple
The Kailasanathar Temple (meaning: "Lord
of Kailasha"), is built in the tradition of
Smartha worship of Shiva, Vishnu, Devi,
Surya (Sun), Ganesha and Kartikeya, in
Temple construction is credited to the
Pallava dynasty, who had established their kingdom with Kanchipuram (also known
as "Kanchi" or "Shiva Vishnu Kanchi") as
the capital city is considered one of the
seven sacred cities under Hinduism. In Kanchi, after the Pallavas expanded their
territories to the north, west and south
both within Tamil, Andhra and Kannada
territories under Emperor
Narasimhavarman I, they started expanding their capital city of
Kanchipuram and built many temples of
great magnificence. Among the two
unique specimens of temple architecture
of the period 640–730, CE is the Tiru
Parameswara Vinnagaram, which is also
known as the Vaikunta Perumal temple
and the Kailsahanathar Temple.
The temple was built around 700 CE with
additions in the 8th century and
restorations in later centuries. It is the first
the structural temple was built in South India by
Narasimhavarman II (Rajasimha), also
known as Rajasimha Pallaveswaram.
His son, Mahendravarman III, completed the front façade and the gopuram (tower).
Prior temples were either built of wood or
hewn into rock faces in caves or on
boulders, as seen in Mahabalipuram.
The Kailasanathar temple became the
trendsetter for other similar temples in
South India. According to local belief, the temple was a safe sanctuary for the
rulers of the kingdom during wars. A
secret tunnel, built by the kings, was used
as an escape route and is still visible.[6] It is believed that Raja Raja Chola I (985–
1014 CE) visited the temple and drew
inspiration from this temple to build the
Currently, Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple is
maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.
Architecture
The floor plan of the Kailasanathar temple
Inner court or the circumambulatory
passage with 58 sub-shrines.
Typical design of pillar with multi-
directional mythical lions.
Temple view
The temple has retained the Pallava
architecture in its original stylized form
with the influence of the later styles developed
by the Chola Dynasty and Vijayanagara
Emperors. It is of stone-built architecture unlike the rock-cut architecture built into
hallowed caves or carved into the rock
outcrops as in Mahabalipuram. The tall gopuram (tower) is to the left and the
the temple complex is to the right. The
temple's foundations are made of granite, which could withstand the weight of the
temple, while the superstructure, including
the carvings are all made of sandstone.
Initially, only the main sanctuary existed
with pyramidal vimana and a detached
The temple complex is complete in all
respects as it has garbagriha (sanctum
sanctorum), antarala (inner enclosure),
mandapa, a high compound wall, and an
entrance gate, the gopuram. The
mandapa, which was initially detached,
was made part of the main shrine by
interposing an ardhamantapa (smaller
hall). The pillars of the mandapa have the
repetitive features of mythical lion mounts.
The structure has a simple layout with a
tower or vimana at the centre of the
complex. The vimana of the temple, above
the main shrine (sanctum sanctorum), is
square in plan and rises in a pyramidal
shape. The tower has many levels rising
proportionately.At the top of this tower,
there is a small roof in the shape of a
dome. The pillar elements with mythical
animal shapes (lions on the base) are
extra features in Pallava style. At the entrance, the gopuram walls are plastered.
Its entrance wall has eight small shrines
and a gopura, a precursor to the main
gopura. At some later stage, the mandapa
and the sanctuary was joined by an
intermediate hall called the ardhamantapa,
which is reported to have marred the
the beauty of the temple to some extent. The
the temple is enclosed within walls in a
rectangular layout.
A sculpture in one of the
niches of the 58
sub-shrines.
as Gangadhara capturing
the river Ganges with a
strand of his hair.
Sculpture depicting
Goddess Durga.
The main shrine has a 16-sided Shivalinga
in black granite stone deified in the sanctum sanctorum. Within the walls of
the main shrine there is padabhanda
adhisthana (main pedestal) with very
elegantly carved images of gods with a
sculpted Nandi, a little distance away giving guard to the deity. On each face of
the outer walls of the main shrine there are
many carvings of deities.
On the south-facing wall the sculpture
depicts Shiva as Umamaheshavara (Shiva
with his consort Parvati) with Lingodbhava
(emergence of Shiva as a fiery pillar - linga) surrounded by Brahma and Vishnu and flyincamerasas on the lower level.
The west-facing hall has sculptures of
Shiva in the form of Sandhya Tandavamurti
and Urdhava Tandvamurti and the
the ensemble is completed with images of
ganas in dancing poses and also with images of Brahma, Vishnu, Nandi and
Parvati.
The carving of Shiva on the north facing
the wall is a composition of Tripurantaka
flanked by three ganas, goddess Durga
with three ganas, and goddesses Bhairavi,
Kaushik and Jyestha.
The exterior faces of the vimana (tower)
have images of aspects of Shiva -
Bhikshatana, Somaskanda and in Samhara-Tandava (destructive dancing)
pose.
In the inner walls of the prakara
(circumambulatory passage) there is
galaxy of images of Durga, Kartikeya,
Bhavati, Tripurantaka, Garudarudha-
Vishnu, Asura Samhara (slaying of demons), Narasimha (Vishnu's avatar),
Trivikrama (another Vishnu's avatar), Shiva
Tandava (Shiva in a dancing pose), Shiva
severing the fifth head of Brahma,
desecration of Yagna of Daksha, Brahma and his wife, Gangadhara, Urdhava tandava, Vishnu flanked by Bhudevi and
Sridevi, Lingodbhava, Bhikshatana, Ravana,
and Vali offering prayers to Atmalinga Chandikeshvara. The image of
Ardhanariswara sitting on a bull is
considered the most noteworthy among
Vimana's south-facing wall has very
elegant image of Shiva in a sitting posture
of peace and quietude knew as
Dakshinamurthy and its west wall have Shiva in the form of Lingodbhava.
The tower has multiple shrines embodied
on all its external faces which have the
the appearance of miniature shrines. These
shrines have three features, the sala
(rectangular), Kuta (square) and banjara
(apsidal) styles. Eight small shrines also
decorate the entrance wall. The 58 small
shrines are built into the niches of the
the compound wall that encloses the main
shrine; they depict Somaskanada reliefs of
Shiva and his consort Parvathi in many dance forms
Other features
A small figure playing the Kinnara playing a
alpine vina in a niche.
yazh, ca 8th century CE
The outstanding feature of sculptures is
the profusion of the depiction of the erect
lions projecting out in several
directions. There are two sculptures of
Shiva here which are seen holding the
alpine veena (musical string instrument) in the hand. There is a lot of difference
between the veenas found in the said
sculptures and the present-day veena.
There are also beautiful sculptures of
Mathahvialasa Prakshanam. The temple
also has the earliest stone inscription
which records of the twenty-eight
Saivagamas (Shaiva saints) in which the Pallava King Rajasimhavarman states his
faith in Shaivism. The murals on the inner walls are well-preserved.
Circumambulatory passage
A circumambulatory passage, with a
the symbolic meaning is situated along the
circumambulation, there is a narrow entry
the passage in which devotees must crawl
through. Seven steps must be climbed in
order to reach the passage. Passing
through the narrow passage is indicative
of passage through life. After the
circumambulation, the exit is through a pit
or another narrow passage symbolic of
death. The entry point for this
the passage is called Gate of Death (Tamil:
இற
வாச ). It is believed that
making the circumambulation round the
various deities would usher the same
blessings as visiting paradise. During
completion of circumambulation -
Crawling and coming out of the passage
also indicates that you're coming out of
mother's womb and also explains the Hindu
the belief in rebirth. Hence, the exit is called Gate
of Birth (Tamil: ப ற
வாச ). There is
another belief is that completing this
circumambulatory passage the possibility
of rebirth is not there and you shall attain
Moksha. The passage is UNIQUE,
explaining the life cycle including ageing
process, death and rebirth. Maha
Shivaratri is the biggest festival held in the
temple when thousands of devotees throng
the temple in the evening hours to offer
prayers to the main deity.
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